'Sir Coxsone' Dodd is dead
Famed music pioneer collapses at Studio One; Played major role in
launching Jamaica's popular music
Balford Henry, Observer writer
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
FOUR days after the City of Kingston honoured him by naming a street for
his famous Studio One recording label, Jamaican music pioneer Clement
"Sir Coxsone" Dodd died suddenly yesterday.
He apparently suffered a heart attack at his offices at 13 Studio One
Boulevard, which, until last Friday's big civic ceremony in honour of
Dodd, was Brentford Road.
Dodd was 72.
Sources who were at the studio when he died, shortly after 4:00 pm, said
that the veteran record producer and label boss was sitting around his
desk chatting and joking with them when Dodd suddenly left for the
bathroom. The next time they saw him, he was sitting on a chair outside
the bathroom holding his chest and choking.
"I held him in my arms and tried to revive him and Jennifer Lara kept
trying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," said Bunny Brown, former lead
singer of the Chosen Few, and one of Dodd's protÈgÈs. "He seemed like he
was going to revive, then his eyeballs just turned over."
Dodd was rushed into one of the cars on the premises and taken to the
Medical Associates Hospital, Tangerine Place, St Andrew where he was
pronounced dead.
Dodd's close associate at the studio, Kingsley Goodison, said that it
was obvious he was dead from before he left the premises.
However, Dodd's workers, artistes and others still gathered at the
studio, apparently hoping for a miracle, until the news came back from
the hospital confirming his death.
After doctors pronounced him dead, Dodd's body was immediately taken to
the Madden's Funeral Parlour, North Street in the same car that had
taken him to the hospital.
Outside the morgue, dozens gathered as the news spread of Dodd's death.
At Studio One, the mood was sombre among his associates and artistes,
who lingered.
His wife, Norma, couldn't understand Dodd's sudden death.
"He didn't have a history of heart problems," she said last night,
choking back tears at the Studio One complex. "He never had a heart
attack before."
In a statement last night, Opposition leader, Edward Seaga, a
contemporary of Dodd in the music business in the 1950s and 1960s,
described him as "one of the fathers of Jamaican music". He said that
Dodd was "an extraordinary talent".
Born Clement Seymour Dodd in Kingston on January 26, 1932, he earned the
nickname "Coxsone" after a Yorkshire, England cricketer, while attending
All Saints School in West Kingston. He was considered a good cricket
all-rounder.
But it was as a pioneer of Jamaica's sound system and popular music,
from rocksteady to ska and reggae that Dodd was to find fame.
He started out playing bebop and jazz records for customers visiting his
parents' liquour store on Laws Street, and later Beeston Street, in
Kingston. During a turn at farm work in the United States he widened his
knowledge of rhythm and blues music and imported numerous original 45
rpm records, which became the hallmark of his sound system, Sir Coxsone
Downbeat.
He started the sound system in the early 50s relying on his imported
originals to outplay his competitors, chiefly the late
Arthur "Duke" Reid of Treasure Isle fame.
He opened his studio at Brentford Road in 1963 and since then the name,
Studio One, has become synonymous worldwide with the best of early
Jamaican pop rhythms - ska, rocksteady and reggae.
Dodd is probably best known outside Jamaica for bringing Bob Marley and
the Wailers to national attention and producing some of their most
memorable hits, including the international peace anthem, One Love.
In later days, he has been in constant legal battles with newer Jamaican
record producers who have relied on his rhythms of the 60s and 70s for
the basis of their dancehall rhythms.
But last Friday Dodd was hailed by Kingston's mayor, Desmond McKenzie,
and other officials, including finance minister and South St Andrew MP
Omar Davies - in whose constituency Brentford Road/Studio One Boulevard
is located - for his and Studio One's contribution to the development
and success of Jamaican music. This was based on a resolution passed
last year by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the city
government.
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